RE: Did King David rape Bath-sheba?
November 27, 2014 at 3:14 am
(This post was last modified: November 27, 2014 at 3:20 am by Nope.)
(November 26, 2014 at 10:36 pm)Losty Wrote:alpha Wrote:I don't know if you honestly missed v. 23-24 or are intentionally skipping over it, but it's more applicable, as it refers to the same situation but in a city. In such a case, the act is presumed to be consensual (and both parties punishable by death) unless there's reasonable evidence that it was rape, such as screams from the woman. By your own method of analyzing what we're not told, well, we're not told that she screamed, so it should be viewed as consensual.
I don't know if you honestly don't see how fucking disgusting this is or if you're just okay with it.
If a woman doesn't scream loud enough for someone to hear then it doesn't count as rape and she should be put to death (if married) or forced to marry her rapist. You seem to be misrepresenting the verse. I don't feel like looking it up, but from what I recall a woman raped within city limits is automatically guilty, then they tack on she didn't scream loud enough for a reason why she's guilty. I'm pretty sure.
Sometimes fear keeps a woman from screaming. When I was 16, a relative held me down and tried to rape me.There were other people in the house but I did not scream because I froze. He threatened to hit me. He was afoot ball player and I am a very small female who was even smaller at 16.
In Bathsheba's case, if she refused the king's advances, she and her family might have been killed; in which case, even if she went to his bed without complaining, she was still a victim of rape. On the other hand, it is also possible that she wanted his attention. Powerful people do attract admirers.The bible doesn't say whether the act was consensual or not so we don't know.
Another interesting layer to the story: One of David's son, Absalom had a sister named Tamar. David's other son, Amnon wanted to have sex with her but the girl was a virgin. He tricked her into tending to him while he was sick and raped her. Afterwards, the girl would have had no prospects for marriage
The bible reports that David was angry but did nothing to punish Annon. Later Absalom killed Amnon and temporarily took the kingdom from his father. During his reign, Absalom raped David's wives on the rooftop for the city to see.
My point is that David and his family appear to be a very screwed up group. David's son was not punished for rape which means that before he slept with Bathsheba, David probably already saw himself above the law. That does't mean that David raped Bathsheba but it does show that he is willing to ignore rules when they don't suit him.
* The story of Tamar can be found in 2 Samuel chapter 13